BLESSED - Matt. 5:3-12

The word "blessed" has become a bit of an issue lately - the social media has given it more of a false-humility/self-promotion kind of meaning...people using #blessed to draw attention to their own accomplishments.  It grieves me to have such a treasured word or state of being be given such a tainted image.

Blessed is a word used many times in the Bible.  We see it used most often in Matt. 5:3-12 in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus spoke the message of the Beatitudes to his disciples...describing the kind of people they should be (the "be attitudes"):

Blessed are...
--the poor in spirit
--those who mourn
--the meek
--those who hunger and thirst after righteousness
--the merciful
--the pure in heart
--the peacemakers
--those who are persecuted

The Greek word for "blessed" is makarios, 'the happy state of those who find their purpose and fulfillment in God".  John Stott (one of my very favorites!) says

Happiness is a subjective state, whereas Jesus was making

an objective judgment about these people.  He is declaring

not what they may feel like...but what God thinks of them

and what on that account they are:  they are "blessed".

That surely takes away any idea of this being some worldly definition of great luck or accomplishment.  The very notion that He thinks of me as blessed challenges me to be much more of the descriptions above.  It makes me want to think less of me and more of Him; it makes me sad when I'm not sensitive to the needs of the world; it makes me want to be more holy, to be more merciful, to be a women of greater integrity; it makes me want to be a peacemaker in my home and neighborhood and to pray for those who are dying for the cause of Christ.

One more thought from Dr. Stott:

The Christian cannot be expected to be thanked for 

doing any of these things...but we can have

the approval of God and find self-fulfillment in that happy

state.

I consider myself "blessed" beyond all I could ever have imagined for my life.  Absolutely none of that blessing has anything to do with my accomplishments.  It has to do with what God's great love for the world and what Christ did on the cross for me...and for you.  Hoping you are feeling blessed today.

For further study:  Gen. 1:22, Numbers 6:24, Deu. 28:1-14, Psalm 1:1-2,  Psalm 32:1, Psalm 128:1,

Proverbs 21:18, Ezekiel 34:16, John 12:13,  Acts 20:35, James 1:12

Be blessed (!) in your understanding of God's word.

Love,

Holly